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Classic Literature. Fiction. Science Fiction. HTML:A millennium into the future two advances have altered the course of human history: the colonization of the Galaxy and the creation of the positronic brain. Isaac Asimov's Robot novels chronicle the unlikely partnership between a New York City detective and a humanoid robot who must learn to work together. Detective Elijah Baiey is called to the Spacer world Aurora to solve a bizarre case of roboticide. The prime suspect is a gifted roboticist who had the means, the motive, and the opportunity to commit the crime. There's only one catch: Baley and his positronic partner, R. Daneel Olivaw, must prove the man innocent. For in a case of political intrigue and love between woman and robot gone tragically wrong, there's more at stake than simple justice. This time Baley's career, his life, and Earth's right to pioneer the Galaxy lie in the delicate balance.… (more)
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Standing on its own, this mystery is the best of the Lije Baley and Daneel Olivaw (I adopt the custom of Aurora by leaving the "R." off Daneel's name) books, though it honestly starts off weak. Yet the second half of the book is exciting, stimulating, and more human than most of Asimov's books (I do love his work, but his great flaw is the coldness of his characters). The solution is clever, and better than most mystery novels offer. A good and thoughtful read.
As I was reading the second half of this book I couldn't get out of my head the notion that Asimov had written an 84 point outline of the plot, and then turned the project over to a robot with the assignment to write a chapter on each. At least there were a couple of scenes that left me chuckling thinking about a Daneel/Elijah slash treatment. This is my 27th science fiction book read to date this year; maybe a little break would be in order?
Plots within plots untangle as Lije and
A wonderful book for fans of Asimov, especially other books of Lije and Daneel. Also recommended for science fiction mystery buffs.
Also: Elijah/Daneel omg so in love.
The mystery at the heart of the book concerns the destruction of the humaniform robot Jander on the planet Aurora. Once again, Lige Baley is teamed with Olivaw to hunt down the culprit, but the mystery serves mostly as a vehicle to explore the oddity of the spacer culture. Once on the outwardly utopian Aurora, Lige delves further into dysfunctional nature of spacer society revealed in The Naked Sun. Gladia, introduced in The Naked Sun, turns out to be Jander's owner, and is so distanced from human contact that she took Jander as her lover and "husband". The murder mystery leads Lidge into Auroran politics, featuring a struggle between Aurorans who believe that colonizing the galaxy is their destiny, and others opposed to such a goal.
Along the way, Lidge discovers attempts to construct further humaniform robots to further the goal of colonizing the galaxy, the seeds of the idea that will be developed by Hari Seldon as psychohistory, and a love triangle. The intersection of these elements, especially the attempts to construct humaniform robots without the assistance of the one roboticist who knows the secret of their construction, proves to be the thread that ties together the answer to the mystery. Unfortunately, the answer, and Baley's handling of the denoument of the book is mostly just a set up for the various Foundation-Robot cross overs that came later.
The weakness of this book is not necessarily contained in the story or characters in the book, but the implications that the story has for other Asimov works. The introduction of psychohistory here, thousands of years before Seldon, lessens the "revolutionary" insight that got Seldon arrested and put on trial in Foundation. The introduction of Olivaw and Giskard are more or less benevolent robot-gods shepherding humanity through a crisis begins the process that ends with the omniscient robot guardian of Foundation and Earth. While the story contained within the book itself is well-crafted, the connections it makes with other works serves only to cheapen them.
Since he has been trying unsuccessfully to get permission to travel to the planet Aurora, Elijah Baley is pleased to be summoned there to find out who 'killed' a humaniform robot, and he is even happier to meet up with his old friend R. Daneel Olivaw again. But the case has political ramifications, and failure to clear Hans Fastolfe's name could mean that Earthmen will never get the chance to live on other worlds.
Style: Because of the time gap, contains lots of internal self-references to Asimov's robot stories, by way of creating a
But looking at this book as a purely
The reason is Elijah Baley and R. Daneel Olivaw and their partnership. Asimov is known more for his mind-expanding ideas and world-building than prose or characterizations. I can often remember the basic premise and pay off of his various novels--but rarely the characters, particularly by name. I finished reading Foundation's Edge only days ago, and already I'd have to go find the book to list the names of the central characters. That's not the case here--both characters have a voice, a certain depth and appeal that means they stayed with me--as did this novel even decades after a first read. Elijah Baley as an Earthman, a police detective with both brilliance and vulnerabilities trying hard to overcome fears and prejudice. Olivaw is a "humaniform" robot from a "Spacer" world where, unlike Earth, robots are common. He reminds me quite a bit of Data of Star Trek's Next Generation and was no doubt one of his literary ancestors. No doubt it helps this is the third outing with these two--I'd recommend reading The Caves of Steel and The Naked Sun first. And as a late novel Asimov obviously had a lot of fun dropping in references to earlier novels and stories--something that for a fan like me was quite fun--and more than fun Asimov makes you think about what it means to be human. And I quite like the mix of mystery and science fiction.
Extremes are dangerous and should not be followed by a society at